Cultural History of Indian Arts with Subcontinent

The history of Indian subcontinent starts with the Indus Valley Civilization and the coming of Aryans both are known as Pre-Vedic and Vedic periods. The Indus River Civilization dates back to 2300 – 1750 BC and had two main cities; Harappa in western Punjab and Mohenjo-Daro on the lower Indus in Sindh – now the two important provinces of Pakistan. Both cities were urban grain growing civilizations and were believed to have run by Aryans who came from Iran (Mcintosh, 2008). Effects of culture on intercultural relations: There is evidence of cultural relationships of Indus valley civilization with other communities like the similar items are found in Mesopotamia (Mcintosh, 2008).

The Aryans were nomads who worshipped gods (their gods were all representation of nature). Their literature known as Rig Veda has many hymns for the gods, they distinguished between small gods and the Supreme Creator. Their worship includes sacrifice followed by the prayers. The Aryans expanded their empire first towards the valleys of Ganges and the Jamuna and later to include the whole of Nothern India (Sharma, 1999). in towns and ports. The Romans convoy came to its western coasts for spices, diamonds and pearls and from eastern ports the ships went to Ceylon, Burma, Malaya, Java and Annan. They also had vast plains on the wide river valley in eastern coast. The Satavahanas were catholic and offered charities to Buddhism and gifted marvelously to shrines and monasteries where the monks could live and meditate (Thaper, 2002). Effects of culture on intercultural relations: The Buddhist teachings promoted peace as they advocated for religion as a personal entity and spread the message of love and harmony among the people of different communities. The story tellers used to narrate the stories of kings and common people of different cultures which brought them together without even visiting the other societies and bringing the culture familiarity as is still seen between the people living at the Afghanistan and Peshawar borders of Pakistan.

As Akbar was pro Hindu and married a Hindu woman. He brought the idea of fusion of Hindu and Muslim culture. The art of his time had blend of both cultures, thus idealistic in nature. Jahangir and Shahjahan his successors maintained the same outlook of the society but Aurangzeb Alamgir (A.D. 1658-1707) break that spells again into conventional Muslim policy (Richard, 1995). Art in the Muslim era flourished due to their good taste and generosity in aesthetic sense. The artists, writers, poets, thinkers, scholars from all over Asia came to their courts. Mughal emperors encouraged the artists and musicians and thus the people of different religions come together and also the sufis saints of the time paved a way in bringing people together.

The art of Indian subcontinent is idealistic in nature with strong traces of different cultures and civilizations in it. It is evident from the history that the cultural diplomats in the region were the invaders, warriors that brought the cultural diffusion through hard power but along with them there were a great number of soft power promoters as artists, suifs, poets, musicians, and story tellers. The role of these cultural diplomats was significant in contributing to the better sociocultural understanding and building relationship between people of different faiths, sects and regions.

Mcintosh, J. (2008). Understnading Ancient Civilization: The Ancient Indus Valley, New Perspectives. USA: ABC – CLIO, Inc. Richard, J. F. (1995). The Mughal Empire. UK: Cambridge University Press. Sharma, S. R. (1999). Mughal Empire in India. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers Singh, U. (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd. Swarup, S. (1968). 5000 years of Arts and Crafts in India and Pakistan. Bombay: D. B. Taraporevala Sons & Co. Private Ltd. Thaper, R. (2002). Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300. California: University of California Press.

Research Scholar, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi, UP